


The Rough Patch

by shlaura



Series: Pretty Little Destiels [21]
Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:12:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shlaura/pseuds/shlaura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marriage is hard. Raising a kid is harder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rough Patch

There is never a time in all of Dean and Cas’s lives together that they are not deeply and madly in love with each other. But that doesn’t mean that times have always been good. It’s true, every couple fights. But when two people have been with each other for long enough, outside forces threaten to corrode the strength of that bond. 

Mary-Ann was nearly nine years old. Dean and Cas had been married for over eleven years. They had been balancing on a tight rope for months but it was September when things came to a head. 

Dean’s best mechanic woke up one day and decided he was moving to Seattle.Dean was trying to run a business with a bunch of trained apes for employees. He left the house before the sun came up and didn’t collapse into it again until 10 o’clock if he was lucky. 

At first Cas would fall asleep on the couch, waiting for his husband to come home. Neither of them mentioned it when more often than not Cas started spending his nights on that couch. And every morning Cas would scrape a perfectly good meal into the trash can off the dish he’d always remember to leave in the microwave, just in case Dean came home hungry.

Once Mary-Ann mentioned to Cas that she hadn’t seen her other father in three days. That night, she fell asleep with her fingers in her ears, humming not quite loud enough to drown out the angry shouting.

Cas stopped making dinner for three and starting making dinner for two. He hadn’t baked a pie in three months. Mary was counting. Between September 4th and September 14th Mary-Ann didn’t witness a single word pass between her fathers. Dean didn’t take a day off for three weeks straight. On the first day he did take off, Cas spent 10 hours in his office on campus, working on his most recent project. 

It’s a Tuesday, September 25th. It is 4:30 in the afternoon and Cas is trembling head to toe. Dean’s Impala tears through the neighborhood like a bat out of hell. The police officer is asking, for the third time, for a recent picture. It has been two hours since anyone had seen Mary-Ann last. 

“She’s missing, Dean. She’s missing. Dean this can’t be happening.” Dean wraps his arms around Cas. He swears to himself silently that he would never ever allow Cas to sound like that again. 

“Mr. Winchester, do you have any enemies? Any body who might want to hurt your daughter?”

Cas makes an inhuman noise against Dean’s shoulder, and though it was mostly muffled by his leather jacket, that sound would feature prominently in some of Dean’s worst nightmares.

“No,” Dean barks out. “We are a mechanic and a professor, what the hell kind of enemies could we have?” 

He’s already doing a mental list check. There is nothing he can think of. He’s been out of the hunting game ten years now. Sam’s been out for five years. Who the hell would wait that long to decide to settle a score with the Winchesters?

The detective is still asking questions. Have they noticed anyone paying too much attention to the kids around the neighborhood? Anything out of place or peculiar? Unfamiliar cars? All the answers are no. Dean may not be a hunter anymore but he is always hyper vigilant The only thing keeping Dean from burning the world down to find his daughter is the man in his arms who hasn’t stopped shaking. It is 6:19. Almost four hours in.

The patrol car pulls up to the house with its sirens ablaze. Dean sucks in a breath and practically carries Cas outside along with him. The officer opens the passenger door a little girl climbs out, head hung low, feet shuffling. 

Cas launches himself at her, falls to his knees before her, and clutches her to his chest as a sob wrenches from his chest. 

“Where?” is all Dean manages in a voice that is too rough. Those are definitely not tears in his eyes. 

“Aquarium,” the officer answers immediately. 

Dean’s head snaps up, away from the sight of his baby girl safe in his husband’s arms. “That’s almost ten miles from the school. How’d she get there?”

The officer shrugs. “Says she walked. She looks pretty worn out, I’m inclined to believe her.” 

Dean runs a hand over his face, then both of them through his hair. He thanks the detective and the officer as the men get in their cars and pull away from their curb. Cas carried Mary-Ann into the house a few minutes ago. He hasn’t released her even for an instant. 

Cas is rocking their baby against his chest on the couch. Dean dead bolts the front door and triple checks the back door, and then sits beside Cas and pulls a terrified looking little girl into his lap. It takes Dean a minute to process that she’s crying.

“Hey, hey baby. It’s okay. You’re home. You’re safe.”

“Don’t be mad,” she begs, her little voice floating out to them from the crook in Dean’s neck where she’s hiding her face.

“Jesus, Mary. We’re not mad. Of course we’re not mad. Do you even understand how scared we were. Just look at your Papa. We’ve never been that afraid in our whole lives.”

“Not even when you were fighting monsters?”

“Never,” Cas confirms, finally regaining some composure. 

“Baby,” Dean starts, pulling her away from his neck to look her in the eye. “Why did you walk to the aquarium?”

“It’s the last place I can remember where you two didn’t hate each other,” she whispers, not looking at either of them. 

Every muscle in Dean’s body tenses. Cas stops breathing. 

“What?”

She sighs. And looks to Cas. “You’ve been sleeping on the couch and you don’t leave dinner in the microwave for Dad and Dad works all day and all night. You don’t love each other anymore. I wanted to remember a time when you did.”

“Mary-Ann Cassidy Winchester, the only person I love more than your father is you,” Cas assures her. 

“You haven’t exactly been acting like it lately.” 

Dean sighs and stands. She clings to him, wrapping her arms and legs around him tightly as he carries her towards the stairs. Cas follows without hesitation.

“I think it’s time for you to go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

“Please don’t get a divorce! I don’t want you to live in a different house!”

“Woah buddy, no one is going anywhere. Your papa and I just have some things to talk about. He already told you, the only person we love more than each other is you, okay? That hasn’t changed, no matter how stupid we’ve been acting.”

They change her into her pajamas and stay until she knocks out, taking turns singing softly. It doesn’t take very long. 

Dean and Cas shut the door soundlessly. Dean sits on the bed and Cas stands, staring at him, unsure of what to say.

Dean’s head drops into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. “Jesus Christ, Cas, we did that to her. We did that.”

Cas nods and sits down next to him on their bed. Dean turns to him and takes his face between his hands, pressing their foreheads together. He whispers, his breath caressing Cas’s lips, the words slipping into him through the gap between them.

“Stop sleeping on the couch.”

Cas’s hands clutch at Dean’s sides.

“Start coming home for dinner again,” he responds.


End file.
